Second Phase of the Governance Reform Program

The Managing Government Expenditure prescription on public financial management would be appropriate: (i) never transpose into a different social and economic context reforms introduced elsewhere, without in-depth assessment of their impact and requirements and appropriate adaptation if necessary; (ii) never move beyond the basics until one is certain that the basics have been set right; (iii) never hope for a quick-and-easy technical solution to complex and longstanding budget process problems; and above all, (iv) keep the local authorities firmly in charge of the reform process, and never assume that the “experts” are invariably right.